A/N: EDIT: Flames can sod off. Let people enjoy the story! DOUBLE EDIT: Put some more content in and a preview that most -if not all! -of you should like.
As ever, we're following the Ember's Rule here.
If folks don't like this, it'll be deleted. Poof! Gone! Every bit of feedback helps.
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Get ready. This hits hard.
No questions this time! I'll let the chapter do the talking for me. Though I will say this. Timeskips here. Lots of them. Be ready.
As ever, I own no references, quotes, themes or memes. Not a wit or a one!
Now buckle up, because here comes the Branwen Arc.
"There is only one rule in life! The strong survive!"
~?
But More You Took
A bloody blade swept down at Cinder's head.
Rather than flee like any sensible child, the golden-eyed girl strengthened her stance and stood her ground. Twin blades crossed to catch the crimson edge between them, trapping the longsword within their gap. The raw impact of their collision sent sparks of red-hot agony shooting down her thin arms. Muscle creaked. Bone shuddered ominously. Yet she didn't fall. A grin tore across her face as she reared back and slammed her heel into her attacker's knee. A pained grunt was her reward; her heart soared as the blade buckled.
Just a little. Just a bit. It was enough.
Yes! a little flare of pride filled her chest. I finally hit her!
"Not bad." her mentor gave a nod. Scarlet eyes narrowed. "But not good enough, either."
Raven Branwen braved her blade with both hands and tore through her defense like wet paper. Cinder wasn't there she did; Omen swept through empty air as she struck the ground and tumbled to safety. She grabbed a fistful of dirt as she went, then flung it after her. Heat and fired flared as they flew, crystallizing the once harmless soil into molten shards of explosive glass. In the same moment she saw a streak of motion that heralded Naruto's return to the fray. A muffled explosion reached her ears, but she didn't dare look back.
Something like that wouldn't faze Raven for long.
Sure enough, the Chieftain's laughter rose to mock her attempt.
"Good!" the swordswoman's voice sneered into the smoke. "Life is a battle! Use every advantage you have!"
Cinder pivoted and scowled into the smokescreen created by her blast. One leg draped low, while the other swung back, her body poised to react at the slightest provocation. Her eyes flitted left, then right, searching for any sign of movement. She wouldn't be caught off guard. Not again, not this time.
Three years of this.
Thirty-six months of constant training bordering on torture. Raven was relentless. She wouldn't let her or Naruto raid because they weren't strong, refused to allow out of leave camp because they were young, wouldn't do anything more than train them. Day after day she beat them down, built them back up, and destroyed them all over again. She was as much their Master as she was their Mentor, and they her Apprentices. It burned. And not in the bad way.
For all her savagery, Raven was undoubtedly strong.
But so what?! Today was the day she finally wiped that smirk off her face and-yipe!
Omen swept out of the haze with impossible speed, raking a thin line just below Cinder's left eye before she could comprehend the danger. She yelped and shunted the edge aside, backpedaling lest her adversary advance and overwhelm her with a flurry of strikes. Too slow. A boot caught her in the torso to hurl her away.
Something sharp cracked against Cinder's back.
'Oh.' her rattled brain wondered. 'Hello, wall. We meet again.'
Bleary eyes blinked up and she realized she'd slammed into the wooden palisade at the edge of camp. More than a few chuckles greeted her. How she longed to snuff them out. Stupid tribe. Not even fourteen and already she was stronger than all of them...all except Raven. Raven who tossed her about like a rag doll. Raven, who claimed she did it because she cared. Raven, who beat her within an inch of her life.
How it burned.
"How many times do I have to tell you?" A hand closed around Cinder's throat and ripped her upright. "Don't lose focus in a fight. It'll get you killed."
Cinder tried to respond, only for five firm fingers to dig into her throat. She kicked at her mentor's chest with an vengeful snarl.
"What's that?" Raven coked her head. "I can't seem to hear you.
A flick of her wrist flung her away like a skipping stone.
"Watch my waist." Raven slammed Omen into its sheathe as Cinder crawled to her feet and drew another dust blade, this one a deep rippling blue. "It'll tell you where I'm going to move."
Cinder raised a single finger in a sharp salute where she lay.
Se'd only just recovered when that scarlet sword swept past and slammed down through the dirt. Grit sprayed into Cinder's eyes and she recoiled with a yelp.
"That's not fair!"
"Everything is fair in combat!" Raven fell upon her in a storm of swords, hacking like a madwoman. "Adapt!"
Step by step Cinder found herself forced back; her eyes stinging with pained tears, arms aching, guard forced out of balance as she blocked each blow. Finally she couldn't take it anymore. Her arms began to buckle under the strain. She knew. Raven knew it.
And then it ended..
A single sweep brought Branwen well within striking distance; from there she chambered Omen in its sheathe and cut down.
Aura crackled, sending Cinder sprawling to the ground.
Oh gods, the pain.
She sucked in an agonizing breath and felt her ribs protest all the more for it. She tried to rise, to move, to fight, something, aything...
Raven's shadow fell over her.
Had she broken something? She couldn't move her right arm. The world
"If this were a real fight you would have been dead nine times over." Twin pools of cold crimson met orbs of molten gold. "What do you have to say for yourself?" She pivoted and planted one hand against her hip. "Well? Had enough yet?"
Cinder slapped a hand against the ground.
"That's not a response."
Damnit. Damn her. Damnitall.
Her head snapped up and she snarled, low and angry. "Shut up!"
Paused now, when a flicker of movement stirred behind Raven in the haze of combat. Soundless footsteps approached rapidly. Naruto? He crept close with a keen look in his eyes. Raven didn't notice. Her wrath-and her disappointment!- were fixed firmly upon her. Taking up her blade in both hands, she raised it high, readying the finishing blow; a singular strike that would crack her aura wide open and send her spiraling into unconsciousness.
"If you were stronger or more clever," she chided, "Then maybe you'd remember to watch your back."
Cinder smirked. "And maybe you should heed your own advice.
Raven pivoted too late.
A length of glowing chain coiled around her ankle. Then it yanked, tearing her feet out from under her. Naruto hauled her away with a roar of triumph sent her bod arcing up, and smashed her into the ground. Raven cut up with her blade, only for the viciously long cord to whip her through a tent. Followed by another. Another. And another still. Aura fizzled sullenly. For the first time since they'd met her, the elder Branwen cried out in pain.
But only for a moment.
Anyone else would've been knocked out by an attack like that. Raven simply hauled herself upright, reached around, and caught the chain within her fist. Her palm crushed around the glowing link with an awful sound. It bloodied her fingers yet she didn't relent, tightening her ruined hand around it until the razor-sharp links shattered like brittle glass.
"Clever move, boy." she was generous with her praise when she climbed back to her feet. "Striking when my back was turned. But how well will you fare when I'm aware of you?"
Naruto shrank back a step. "This is going to hurt, isn't it?"
"Immeasurably." Raven grinned. "But its for your own good."
They closed with one another.
It wasn't a fight. They didn't hack at one another like lunatics. Their duel was a dance. Naruto didn't give ground, not once. Nine barbed chains coiled and struck behind him like wrathful whips, gouging the ground, tents, anything they touched. For her part Raven was forced to defend and little else while he pressed the attack. What few strikes slipped through his guard healed almost immediately. They collided and grappled for all of a moment, and somehow, he launched her away, buying himself time.'
Then he launched her way.
His hand snapped up and red light flowed into his palm.
"That's much better!" Raven clamored to her feet with a laugh, a wide grin tearing across her pale face. "I can actually feel that!"
"Give me a moment," Naruto mirrored her grin with a wild snarl. "All you'll be feeling is oblivion!"
"That or disappointment." Raven shrugged. "Go ahead. Flip that coin."
Naruto shot forward.
Raven blurred.
Cinder didn't see who struck first but, he was the one who crashed backward. His spine struck the earth and cut an furious furrow through it until he came to rest at her didn't rise again.
"We'll call it there for today." Raven straightened, clutching her side. "I've got a raid to plan. Both of you, attend to Her while I'm gone."
She left them with those words. Like always. Like they were nothing. How it burned.
Cinder slammed a fist into the ground. "Damnit!"
Another loss.
Naruto found his footing first.
"Well, we came close that time."
Cinder scowled at his offered hand.
"I want power!" her fist smashed into the dirt. "I never want to be weak like that again! How were you able to fight like that?!"
He shrugged. "Push ups, sit ups, and plenty of juice?"
If looks could kill he would be a smoldering pile of ashes on the floor.
"Alright, alright." he raised his hands and accepted defeat. "Its hard to explain, but I'll try." his brow furrowed and the chains returned, twining around him like wary sentries. "See? I can control them pretty well, but nost of the tine they act on their own. Like an automatic defense." his hand touched his chin. "I think that's the word. Sometimes I can even hear a voice in my head when I use them. Like its telling me what to do, how to move before I realize it.
Cinder envied him that; voices or not, he was undoubtedly able to hold his own in a fight.
"Its nice," he admitted, scratching at a whiskered cheek. "Feels like someone's protecting me. Watching over me, y'know?" A rueful chuckle split the air between them. "Maybe its the ghost of my real mom or something."
Lucky him.
She couldn't even remember her parents. For a moment, she hated him for it. Naruto was strong. She was still weak. He had memories of a different life, a different world...and all she had was ash. Even now. Three years after the Cave. She scowled and stamped it down, recalling the old woman's words.
No.
Never weak.
Never, ever again.
Cinder frowned at her arm. For a moment there it almost looked...black. She blinked and found it the same as it always had. Bah. Shadows were playing tricks on her.
"We have to survive, Cinder. That's all that matters here. The tribe-
"They should all die! All our enemies! Every last one of them!"
Naruto recoiled. "Cinder?"
The poor girl blinked, realizing what she'd said.
She clung to him like a child wailing in the night, like the child she still was, begging to be heard; not to be forgotten.
"I'm sorry." her head slammed into his chest. "I didn't mean you...please, never leave me...
(.0.0.0.)
Mara was a gentle girl.
Too gentle for the power of the Spring Maiden, Naruto thought.
Born with pale skin and striking violet eyes and a wild cloud of red curls about her head, she was the last person one might expect to wield such power.
She was a sickly girl, shy and prone to speaking in brief sentences at the best of times; nearly mute at others. She feared most of the Tribe and isolated herself constantly. He couldn't help but pity her. She was scarcely able to walk these days, let alone feed herself. For if Spring was the season of life and change, then so too was Mara a force of nature.
Or she should have been.
She was simply too terrified of her own power. Afraid to use it. More than a few thought she wasn't right in the head. Damaged or simple perhaps. Maybe she was. Maybe she wasn't. He had no way of knowing. And he didn't like the way Cinder had been glaring at her as of late. Still, it was there job to see that she was kept fed and clean. Nothing more.
"There you go." he set one such tray heaped with food before the girl. "Enjoy."
Her pale-veined hand grabbed at his wrist. "Thank...you...
His heart twisted. "Don't mention it."
"I know you don't want to be here anymore than we do," he hummed as he tugged a stray strand of lank hair out of her eyes. "But it'll be alright. If you need anything at all-
"You should fight back."
Naruto shot a glower at Cinder.
"Fight...?"
"You have power." his friend raised a hand and clenched her fist tight. "You could go wherever you want, be whomever you wanted to be. Yet you limit yourself. Why?"
"Cinder," he warned, "That's enough."
Dull eyes met hers. "I never...wanted this power."
Well. That was the most she'd said in a good long while.
Cinder exploded.
"Why not?!" she surged up before he could think to stop her and swatted the tray from Mara's hands. "Are you stupid?! You've been blessed! Yet you hide away here and listen to these scum! Coward!"
Mara blinked at her, not quite comprehending.
Then she laughed.
It was a wild, crazed thing, one that took both children aback.
"You this is a blessing?" her voice piqued, a high and reedy whine of fear. "It a curse!" Bloodshot eyes roamed the room. "She'll come for me! Come for us all! We're all doomed!"
He reached for her. "Mara-
"Get out!"
Cinder needed no further prodding.
Naruto lingered a moment more, unwilling to leave-
A gale of wind hit him in the face and all but shoved him outside.
Looking back, he couldn't help but wonder if he should have stayed. It might've changed things.
(.0.0.0.)
The very next morning, Raven paid Mara a visit.
There were no more outbursts after that.
Spring didn't speak to them afterward.
(.0.0.0.)
Their first raid was bloody.
Naruto wasn't sure why he was surprised, only that he was.
It didn't stop him, of course. Nothing did. Even as his heart twitched with guilt, he fought on.
Rather than strike at some defenseless border town, the Branwen Tribe chose to attack a White Fang encampment. No weaklings here; these were trained veterans from the Faunus Wars, one and all. These men and women had stolen from the Tribe and refused to return what they'd taken. They'd slain those who approached. And so they would repay their debt in blood.
This was the way.
It was into this hell that a fourteen-year-old Naruto found himself thrust. Guns barked around him. Blades crashed. Aura sparked. He gave himself to his instincts and tore through it all without reservation. He gloried in it; grinned like a wold as he waded through the chaos. It felt so very nice to fight bad guys again. These were all killers, and those who worked with them were even worse.
"Die, human!"
A crazed redhead rushed him with blade in hand. So young. Pity stirred in his heart. So young. He quashed it and gave the suicidal zealot what he hoped was a quick death. Chains of chakra burst from the blond's back and skewered the unlucky fool at three yards. He twitched against them, struggling to advance. Blond brows drew down. The chains responded in kind; rent him in half like a stuffed toy.
Then he moved onto the next.
A woman rushed him with a shriek; only to be caught by the face and summarily disemboweled for her troubles. He said a prayer for her and walked on. Three more fell to is chains, and another to the hatchet he wielded in hand. It was a strange thing, throwing oneself into a grand melee like this. He wasn't surprised when they killers began to break. Their kind always did. They didn't have a creed. They lacked a code. They struck out at anyone and everything. Such would be their undoing-
"Down!"
He ducked as a blade of superheated glass swept over his head; it raced past and bisected a massive brute wielding...was that a chainsaw? Odd. Dismissing such thoughts fro his mind, the jinchuuriki rose fro his crouch and shot his savior a black look.
"Hey, watch it! You nearly blinded me!"
"Sorry," Cinder hummed as she slipped past. "Your head was where my sword needed to be."
"I swear, one of these days you're going to be the death of me.
She slapped his arm and danced away with a laugh.
Abruptly, she doubled back and darted in for a fierce embrace. Her arms linked around his as her chin came down around his shoulder. He jolted in surprise, barely having time to return her affections before she slipped away into the madness once more. In that moment she'd never looked more alive. With a rueful smile, he drew his chains about him and waded in after her.
To hell with an old woman's words.
This was their life to live. Theirs.
They would kill to keep it.
(.0.0.0.)
"Hide!"
Cinder couldn't remember the last time he'd seen Raven this concerned.
No, scratch that. She couldn't recall seeing her worried...ever.
For so long Raven Branwen had been a bastion of strength and power, a constant they'd lived their lives by. Not cruel but stern, not evil, but ambiguous. She disliked the woman to be sure, but she didn't wish death upon her. She'd fed them, kept them clothed, and offered them shelter.
Yet now as she thrust them into her tent, there could be no denying her fear.
Terror was writ all over her face, punctuated by the pitched sounds of combat outside. Smoke. Fire. She could still see it, hear the screams as keenly as if they were her own.
"Raaaaaven~!" A woman's voice sang out into the gloom. "Where are you? We know you're here! Give us the girl!"
They'd come for the Maiden.
With one arm Raven thrust Mara's limp body at Cinder, the other pushed them deeper into the tent...and pressed a knife into her hands.
"Kill her." she snapped. "Do it now."
Cinder jerked back with a yelp. "What?!"
"The power is yours, Cinder. Take it and run! Now!"
Naruto yanked her back. "And after...? Why are you doing this?!"
"Your time with the Tribe will be over." she stood with a wince. "Kill her and go. I'll buy you some time."
Cinder understood what she meant at once. The Power. Raven was offering the power of the Spring Maiden to them. To her. To have it gifted to her on a silver platter was too much. Too tempting. She couldn't resist. She should resist...shouldn't she? She had an awful feeling about this, but the prospect of power was so tempting. So tantalizing.
Tears sprang to her eyes. "I'll be able to protect myself with this...?"
"Yes." Raven's voice was cold. Clipped.
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me." those furious red eyes regarded her with veiled intent. "This is an awful burden. I don't want it. You may curse me for this someday."
Curse her?! For a power like this?! Why would she?!
Shining eyes met hers. "No. Never. Thank you."
Mara looked up at her with bleary eyes.
A thorn of hesitation held Cinder back. Did she dare? There could be no taking this back. If the Tribe had been attacked for this, then surely the same fate would fall upon her. Or would it? Mara was weak. She refused to use her gifts and live in fear. She was a fretful, fearful child. Cinder Fall was not. Resolved burned in her eyes.
Naruto saw it and swore. "Cinder, don't-
Cinder twisted the knife.
Fire.
Heat filled her veins, swelling in every cell, every fiber of her being. She gasped and dropped her weapon to clutch at herself. The pain didn't stop. It spiraled ever higher, eating away at her soul. Her head snapped up with a cry as her voice broke, breath hitching out of her in little gasps. Naruto's arms came down around and she clawed at it with a terrified sob, nails tearing into the flesh of his chest. He grunted, but didn't release her. Make it stop, she wanted to say. Its too much. I'm going to break. I can't-
Cinder felt something shift behind them; for a moment, through blazing eyes she struggled to blink.
"Be strong." a voice whispered in her ear. "Trust one another. In the end, that's all you have. Just...trust. Hold each other. Love one another. Be strong."
For a moment, just a second, she could've sworn Raven had embraced them. Hugged them, as if they were her own. She didn't know for certain. Couldn't even begin to be sure. Just as swiftly the pressure eased and she found herself spun around, gazing into those peerless red eyes.
"If you see Tail...tell him...I'm sorry."
A crimson portal swirled open before them.
Naruto realized what she intended. His eyes widened.
"Don't even think about it! We can stay! We can fight! We can-"
With tears in her eyes, Raven Branwen shoved the two of them through to safety.
(.0.0.0.)
Go scouting in Atlas, they said.
It'll be fun they said.
Bullshit, he said!
Qrow looked down at the two teenagers sprawled at his feet and cursed his Semblance to the blackest pit.
"What the actual hell."
Bleary red eyes drifted up to the closing portal through which they'd flown. It snapped shut before his very eyes, denying him the reprieve her sought. Nope. No answers there. His gaze shifted down to the brats, only just now beginning to stir on the floor. Back to his flask now. A groan told him the little wretches were waking up. Damnit. With that thought, his mind came to a single, unenviable conclusion.
He raised his flask. Gave it a shake. Good. Still a fair bit left.
...I am not nearly drunk enough for this shit."
He tipped the flask back and drank.
A/N: Remember, Embers rule. This will be deleted forthwith if folks don't like it. Forthwith! So speak up! Make yourselves heard!
And there we go.
Lets see if this story has a happy ending.
As stated above, reviews are my lifeblood. Can't write without 'em.
So in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review, Would You Kindly?
And enjoy the previews.
SPOILERS! READ IF YOU DARE!
(Previews)
"So...Uncle Qrow?"
"Don't go callin' me that! Only my nieces are allowed 'ta!"
"Yeah, he's drunk."
"We're staying here?"
Cinder eyed the hotel's name with naked contempt.
The Glass Unicorn. Why did she have the worst feeling about this...?
There was faunus girl working there. They made her wear a collar. Not just any collar. A shock collar.
Naruto's blood began to boil in his veins. "What's your name, squirt?"
Her skin flushed. "Illia, sir...
Cinder gazed down at her hands. "I feel like a god...
"Cinder, no." Naruto grabbed her by the wrist. "Don't go thinkin' like that."
"Let me show you the kind of love you and I finally deserve."
R&R~!
